[1997-08-17-Michinoku Pro] Great Sasuke & Oriental & Tiger Mask IV & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs Mens Teoh & Dick Togo & Hanzo Nakajima & Shoichi Funaki (Elimination)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This felt a lot more like a New Japan multi-man match than a typical Michinoku Pro one. Really, really great. By this point in the feud, there's a lot of hate to go with the highspots. I liked the aggression behind the submission eliminations, to accompany the always world class action. Teoh and Hoshikawa have a great stretch at the end and Nakajima even shoves a mic in Hoshikawa's face to make him say I Quit while he's locked in the figure four. This is possibly the best MPro match I've seen in 1996-1997, although I do want to watch the '96 ones again.

[Kevin Ridge]

No more BWO. I miss Taka being out there. Nice four way submission on each limb. A bit different than other matches as Loss pointed it is more serious feeling between the teams and it works. Little of the comedy spots. Heavy use of submissions. Part of me wouldn’t want these guys to be wrestling like this all the time but changing things up can keep it refreshing.

[Childs]

Excellent, fiercely contested match. I liked the way Sasuke and Nakajima set the tone with a tight opening mat sequence. Shaved-head Togo looked great, though really, everyone got moments to shine. I'm not sure I loved Kaientai pitching a shutout in the elimination format. But that was my only complaint.

[soup23]

Need to watch the real hyped 1996 matches again but right now this is competing with the 2/4/94 match as my favorite M-Pro match of all time. Hotly contested action and Kaientai still looking like a dominant faction. The crowd was into this and Oriental impressed me the most in this match as he hit everything cleanly and had some especially inspired sections with Togo. A load of fun overall.

[PeteF3]

I liked the two big '96 matches better, as I can't help but miss the presence of TAKA and Hamada, but this is really good and they manage to throw a few twists into a Kaientai clean sweep. We also get a story of the babyfaces starting out trying to beat K D*X at their own game, with some quadruple-teams and dickishness of their own. The ending is spectacularly dickish as Kaientai apparently agrees to wrestle Hoshikawa 1-on-1, but then they cheat to win anyway and force him to quit into a microphone for good measure.

[Zenjo]

MPro brings the fast paced Lucharesu once more with fun moments along the way. This was potentially really good but had severe flaws. Oriental should've accidently eliminated himself early on by jumping over the top rope onto the floor. The ref decided to sweep the mistake under the carpet as it wasn't supposed to happen. What's more, Oriental would go on to make me pine for Gran Naniwa. No really. Far too long before the first elimination. Some unexpected booking as Kaientai win 4-0. When 1-4 down and about to get a pin Hoshikawa decides to pick up his opponent instead and punish him more. I refuse to believe anyone would be that stupid in that situation.